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MH/Monster Hunters
Concept Across the US and around the world, a band of Monster Hunters travels around to hunt monsters. There are a lot of monsters in the world, but there's also a lot of guardians and champions opposing them. Most champions are part-time amateurs, proficient in dealing a single type of small-scale threat, but lacking the experience and resources to deal with a range of powerful monsters. When these champions find something on their turf that they can't begin to handle, they call , the premier multi-threat monster extermination organization. For a reasonable fee, the operatives of Help Me! travel to the site and deal with the problem. ;Campaign Seeds :The campaign is a mix of Extermination For Sale and Road Trip, with some elements of Shadow Wars. The champions alternate between being hired by clients to deal with major threats and finding out about major threats through the news and needing to find both the monster and a client. The world is teeming with hundreds of monster societies, and the champions must thread their way through unfriendly turf while hunting. Rules Rules Sources, Optional Rules, & House Rules Rule books are modified by Optional Rules and overridden by the house rules. ;Allowed Rule books * Characters and Campaigns * Monster Hunters: Champions & Monster Hunters: The Mission * Action: Heroes & Action: Furious Fists * Martial Arts * Gun Fu * Power-Ups: Imbuements * Power-Ups: Perks * Thaumatology: Magical Styles * Low-Tech & Companions * High-Tech : Background The World Earth plus monsters hidden in the shadows a la Old World of Darkness (only with less world-spanning conspiracies of monsters and/or every significant event in Western history (only) being the work of vampires or mages) or Buffy/Supernatural. ;The Underworld There are places where the fabric of reality is weak, or perhaps where a tightly coiled N-dimensional superstring unwinds enough to allow access to more dimensions than the conventional 4. Whatever the explanation, certain sites allow access to the Underworld: a near parallel space, usually entered through subway tunnels, caves, or other holes in the earth. Something something blah blah blah fae tunnels and crap Champion Networks There are many small-town champions and guardians, mildly gifted individuals and groups who are competent to handle specific types of small scale threats. These heroes communicate through some loose networks. Mundanes often get involved in these networks, usually cluelessly, but sometimes with enough information to understand what Help Me! does and contact them for services. ;The Tabloid Press Most supernatural incidents never make it into the press, and when they do, they only make it into the tabloid press in the least accurate way. Still, the tabloids sometimes get something right, and for many isolated champions, they're the first source of evidence that there are other champions out there. Tabloid classified ads often contain cryptic correspondence between champions, but many of the more clever monsters add false leads and messages of their own. ;The Journals of Mad Science One step up from the tabloids, these self-published journals often contain the observations of actual techies, psis, experiments, sages, and witches, both heroic and rogue. They also contain deliberate rebuttals by honest but clueless scientists and the mad rantings of genuine crackpots. ;The New World Venerable Booksellers' Association (NWVBA) Anyone who regularly sells grimoires has to be aware of what they're selling, and sooner or later becomes aware of the NWVBA. This association of businesses that sells supernatural books and paraphysic supplies is the best information network for budding and established champions. The NWVBA tries to stay neutral on the whole champions vs monsters question: many of their best customers and supplies are rogue techies and witches, after all, but most of the booksellers are mundane humans who would prefer not to be eaten by monsters. For the most part, the NWVBA splits the difference by helping to introduce champions to each other in exchange for not being questioned heavily about what grimoires are being sold to shady people or things. Champions who lean too heavily on NWVBA members are likely to find themselves cut off from occult and paraphysic research material. There are monsters of all types existing throughout the world: ghosts, zombies, cryptids, vampires, rogue humans, mummies, and many others. In modern society, most live on the fringes, hemmed in by modern science and forced on the defensive by local guardians. Monster infiltration of the corridors of power is rare, though some subtle and potent monsters have significant political pull. In the more primitive and less peaceful parts of the world, monsters act more openly and have greater influence. Many monsters form limited communities, such as Fae or demon courts or the nightclub scene of the rogue psis and witches. These communities are by default referred to as undergrounds, distinct from the Underworld, though some undergrounds meet or exist in the Underworld. Spells and Rituals - A bunch of spells intended for a low-powered sage. - Mixed spells from the SJ Games Forums Average expected energy from casting until cumulative penalties make the skill roll a 13, from various effective starting skills. It takes 3*(starting skill - 12) efforts to draw that much energy. These numbers are optimistic and idealized; actual numbers are roughly 80% of these. See this thread for more exact numbers. Logs - Logs of the sessions so far.